The move, reached after agreement with labour representatives will affect 1,154 unionised, non-managerial workers at the company's six plants in Germany. Managers will keep receiving emails, the ruling does not apply to them.

This initiative was introduced after an agreement with union representatives in Germany. Unionised workers responded positively to the news. It follows similar moves implemented by other companies.

Deutsche Telecom has implemented a "Smart-Device-Policy" for its workers. This policy lets workers claim communication free time when they are off work, in exchange for a promise that managers will not expect them to read emails during their leisure time.

Out of hours challenges

Work-life balance, or rather lack of it, has long been an issue for workers with company issued mobile devices.

Last year, a policeman sued the city of Chicago for work done out of hours on his BlackBerry. Sergeant Jeffrey Allen argued that his connection to his workplace via his BlackBerry meant that the city of Chicago owed him overtime.

You don't need to turn your mobile phone off to get the peace and quiet you crave. Some devices can be configured to turn off push related notification for emails outside of working hours. The device can then be used as normal for receiving other messages such as social media content, texts and phone calls.

The challenge as we head towards 'broadband burnout' is do we actually want to be disconnected at all -- or is that flashing red light too compelling to ignore?

Eileen Brown is a social business consultant who has been working with collaborative technologies for 20 years. Eileen creates the social business, energises communities and ignites social commerce and social CRM. She develops social business strategy, customer reach and online branding. Her book, Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketi...
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Disclosure

Eileen Brown is an independent consultant who works for Amastra. Her opinions are her own. She worked at Microsoft from 2001 to 2009. She has no other affiliation to any of the companies that she mentions here.